Triognal Crystal Dimension 44” x 39” x 31” Finished piece shipped off to Schantz Gallery for show at Chesterwood for 3 months. here is the piece in place: Here is the statement I wrote for the show: Trigonal Crystal This piece is part of a new series exploring trigonal crystal systems (like quartz). As an artist, I am attracted to different manners of organic growth, customarily I utilize a glass hexagonal building block to create organic, flowing forms; in this case I am describing a six sided, hemimorphic crystal formation, inspired by my experience visiting Joshua Tree last fall. Within a framework of bronze plated steel each individual glass ‘Hollow Murrine’ unit is connected to the next only by the copper wire linking them together. The individual pieces are made by blowing colored glass into an hexagonal steel moId, cutting the tubing up and fire polishing it in a kiln. In my application of the units to the metal framework, I placed the color of the desert sky onto the form of the quartz crystal in a wash of opaque white ranging to intense transparent blue.

Seattle Office of Arts & Culture has awarded me a Temporary Art Activation grant to mega size some chain diatoms and put them into trees in the Seattle Center for the months of Sept – Dec 2015. here are some excerpts from my proposal: These scale morphed phytoplankton (planktos, the Greek word meaning wanderer or drifter) have appeared in the trees to remind us of their life sustaining powers of oxygen production, similar to the trees, but more ephemeral in their life span and sensitivity to environmental imbalance. As people walk past the work, they will look up and discover this incongruous sight of this microalgae out of the water. Five-foot long spiral forms made of modified plastic bottles mounted on a light metal framework bob in the breeze nestled within the branches of deciduous trees. As the leaves turn in the fall, the bright green of the bottles contrast with the background of yellow and orange leaves. As autumn progresses to winter, the enlarged chain diatoms are fully revealed as the leaves fall from the trees. Solar lights within the pieces will glow as it becomes dark. The recycled bottles will be sourced […]

Finished Finally at 80 hours of weaving! A 2 minute recording I made for ArtPrize about Cascade 8/3/13 My Name is Kait Rhoads, I live and work in Seattle WA and the name of my piece is Cascade. The form is meant to illustrate the way I release my sadness and sorrow surrounding the loss of the last of my living grandparents. Surrender is difficult for all of us, and the anticipation of death a constant reality of life. I see in their preparation to let go of this mortal coil the inevitability of my own participation in the same form of release. Will I be able to surrender gracefully and in a timely manner or will I cling to life until a bitter end? The form is constructed from many hexagonal shaped blown glass tubes or Hollow Murrine. I make the tubing in the hotshop by blowing colored bubbles into a series of hexagonal steel molds, after they are annealed I then cut them into slices and fire polish them in a kiln so that the tubing becomes conical. You can click on this link to see a video of the process if you like […]

Proccess I have been dreaming of making some pieces that look a little like this piece Calyx (below) but with yellow, orange and red inside the white as opposed to the blue and green below. The pieces that I am thinking about perhaps have more to do with pollen spores, sea urchins and volcanos. I made most of the tubing in Hawaii in the fall of 2011. I processed a bunch of it there, but left the smaller tubing until I came home to be able to process it at Pratt Fine Arts Center. Sorting plaster from glass after cutting it on the diamond saw…. starring Becca Chernow Then comes stacking……. starring Rosita Stohl Firing the tubing After the tubing is fired then it is more useful as an architectural element as it tapers the tubing. I have sorted all of the colors until I have my preferred colors. the next step is to sort the sizes – I have a tool that standardizes the sizes for me. check out the VIDEO of me working it! tests of different sized combinations of hollow murrine woven together in conical shapes.

I had a great time in Norway in November The view from out the window of the hot shop at Klart Glass The Symposium was great – I did some demos – here with some help from one of my previous students from Haystack -Sigrid Høyforsslett Bjørbæk the new ‘scale’ patterned pieceHere is our host Vidar Koksvik helping out Wilke Adolfsen a Swedish master. This is a link to a VIDEO of Wilke making his tulip vases Some of Wilke’s famous Tulip Vases Ned Cantrell working on a banana for his Monkey Ned’s Monkey (slumped a little in the oven, looks slightly angry), Wilke’s Grall and my Peacock piece.Dinner together for the Symposium We all went to the opening for Vidar and Kari (Klart Glass) and their 10 assistants from the last 10 years in Hamar and then the party at Klart Glass after. Earlier in the evening……….. ……Later in the eveningtrain from Oslo to Bergen Bergen from abobve Bergen from Sea level Kelp at the aquarium in Bergen Watch this Video I made from my time at the Bergen Aquarium CLICK HERE University Museum […]

VIRTUAL STUDIO SALE – UNTIL NOV 3rd the Studio Sale consists of three parts: PRICE REDUCTION -regular pieces that are discounted; SECONDS -pieces that are a little funky, old or not that expensive JEWELRY discounts on regular pieces and some fun stuff! this part of my website has prices – but no other part does! If you have questions about pricing please email me. I will be changing and updating this part of the website often as I make new work in this limited time period. BERGEN OR BUST - read below or check out the VIDEO instead! My friends Vidar Koksvik and Kari Hakonsen, the owners of Klart Glass, are bringing me to the 11thAnniversary celebration of their shop in Kirkenaer, Norway this November. My goal is to fundraise in order to facilitate a visit to S12 in Bergen (also in Norway), an artist run exhibition space and open access studio for glass that supports artist’s residences. In order to explore this avenue of opportunity, I am offering for a limited time (from now to Nov 3rd) special BERGEN OR BUST prices on a few special pieces! Click here to go to the Virtual Studio Sale BERGEN OR BUST […]

the opening was great and so fun to spend time with the other artists whom participated in the show! Left to right: Paul Cunningham, Paula Stokes, Boyd Sugiki, Chuck Lopez, Kait Rhoads and Grace Meils. Here is a link to a web catalog for the show created by Grace Meils, the Curator. I particularly like what she wrote about me – see below Kait Rhoads’ childhood was divided between rural Virginia and a sailboat in the Bahamas and Caribbean. The experience of growing up on the water had a profound influence on her, and has been a great inspiration to her in her artwork. She has, at times, focused on literal interpretations of kelp, coral, or other sea creatures. Her recent Sea Stones series, however, is more poetic and merely hints at its watery origins: simple forms, with subtle shifts in color and quick glints of light that sparkle like sunshine on a wet surface. Rhoads is incredibly smart, innovative, and hard-working. Her process is extremely labor intensive and unlike anything else being done with the material. When asked about what inspires her, she talks about spending time in nature, and says, “I am a builder and my brains’ […]

Now that I am home in Seattle I have been missing Hawaii very much, so I offer my reflections on being there and the work that I made. I feel lucky to have spent time there, making new friendships and renewing old. Much thanks to Rick Mills for inviting me to be a sabbatical replacement for him at the University of Hawaii. Wind and Manoa I left a lot of the blown work in Honolulu at The Fine Arts Associates. or you can see some of it on my website the Jewelry on my site has a new fresh look to it! please take time to look at it. Mahalo!

Hawaii for the Fall Well, here I am surrounded by amazing nature – don’t really see it much as I have been under the weather – but I am going to get out there more readily as I am getting stronger……… Here is my office at the University of Hawaii at Manoa My great lamp and my Teaching Assistant Kumi Nakajima – without her I would be lost!!!!!!!! More images of beauty!